Get Out Alive
by Meansno
Summary: “Promise me, Bella,” he whispered, his eyes wide and unseeing. “No matter what you see…or what you hear, you won’t stop running. Promise me."
1. Preface

Bella breathed

There is something horrible in the air. A kind of musky potent thing that whispers at something unseen and unheard and _lost. _So very lost.

This is death, she thinks in a kind of panic that is dull and lethargic. Not really enough to make her twitch — or the arm that is being held in a bruising _hateful _grip — spasm.

"_It's okay," _The walls croon. _"It won't hurt. You're too far gone for it to hurt." _

"Yes," She almost whispers in reply. Too far gone, too lost, too broken. And it's okay in that moment. Okay and okay, and _okay. _Because she's gone and none of this is going to hurt because it won't…because it can't.

And Bella is breathing.

Edward is not.

And then and only then is there something horrible filling her. Something so goddamn horrible she falls still with the shocks that are burning and freezing and _dying. _

The walls are whispering. _"Shh," _they hiss. _"You're too far gone remember? He's fine, just fine." _

"Fine," And this time she does speak. He has to be fine. Because as long as she believes he is the shadows in the corners of the walls and the soft flickering candles that light the hallway that goes on and on and on but is too short, far too short, will stop crying. Stop screaming.

She can see the end. See the door that they're about to take her. Where she knows that they have him. Where he will be just fine. Where he will smile at her and say, "Bella, you worry too much." And then he'll take a deep breath and his worn filthy blue shirt won't be red and his eyes won't be hauntingly empty because she wouldn't listen. Because a stupid _goddamn _mistake. And he'll take a deep breath and sigh softly in a room that laughs with every breath he takes.

And he'll breathe and breathe and _breathe. _

She's standing before the door, not having realized they stopped, not having realized they were so _close. _

There's laughter and screaming and crying and she wants it to stop. Wants it so badly she _aches. _

There's a body in front of her. A body so familiar that she is appalled she didn't recognize it right away. But how could she? The skin is painted a striking red and the face is a collage of purples and blues, the beautiful perfect features lost in an abyss of agony.

And the chest isn't rising and falling, but still, so perfectly cruelly still.

And she wonders who is screaming. Who's making that distorted sound that echoes in the never ending room.

And Bella breathed.

* * *

A/N: Okay, I thought I should mention that this story is completely AU. The characters are all the same except that Edward is human and there are a few OC's. I'm not sure exactly how many but you'll know when they're there and some are significant to the plot. Well right now anyway, that might change.

This is my first story and I have to admit that I'm rather nervous so please tell me what you think. I'll have the next chapter out tomorrow and yes I know that this one is incredibly short but the next one is much longer.

Disclaimer: I do not own twilight nor do I own the song Get Out Alive by Three Days Grace where I got inspiration for the title and the idea for my story.


	2. No Time For Goodbye

A/N: Thank you so much for my reviews. I practically squealed when I got them. Yes, I admitted that. I'm sorry that last chapter was confusing but it wasn't really a chapter, just a little peek at one of my future chapters. This one is actually a few months before the preface happened.

Sorry for all the confusion and sorry that you're probably still confused with this chapter. The next one should clear some things up. Well that's the plan anyway.

I'm going to try and update weekly but I might be able to get the next chapter out sooner. It's practically done but I need to make sure that I touched all the points that I needed to.

Sorry for my rambling and tell me what you think!

* * *

Bella took a long sip of her friends Pepsi even though she absolutely hated the stuff. She was definitely a Coke drinker.

"Come on, Bella," Jessica cried with a smile on her face as she attempted to sway to the beat of some rap song that was a distant annoyance to Bella's ears. "Try to have a little fun."

Bella sat deeply in her wicker chair that had been her companion for three hours, twenty-seven minutes, and forty seconds. Not that she was counting or anything.

"I am having fun," She protested, folding her arms across her chest. Her brow creased at the mocking head tilt. "Honestly, I'm having a lot of fun."

Jessica stopped her ridiculous hip swaying and sighed. "Do you want to go back to the hotel? I'll take you."

_Yes! _The word almost emerged. It burned up her throat but she shook her head with a pained smile. "No," She said, obviously meaning the opposite. "It's okay. You're having fun."

"I don't mind." But by the pitiful little smile she gave hinted that she did indeed mind.

Bella mustered up as much sincerity she could. "Really, I'm fine. Go have fun and if I want to leave the hotel isn't that far from here. I can walk."

"You sure?" Jessica was already doing that swaying thing again and Bella knew she had her sold. By now it wouldn't matter if she was chocking on one of those odd foreign appetizers that people kept trying to shove down her throat. She would most likely smile and say "Well if you're sure." And walk away.

But Bella didn't really want to test that. "I'm sure."

Jessica attempted to sway suggestively away.

Bella snorted.

She really didn't want to be there anymore. The lights were giving her a headache and the music wasn't making it any better. She's not exactly sure how she let Jessica talk her into this place.

It was their senior year of high school and each year the seniors got to take a trip together and that is exactly how Bella wound up in some kind of club thing in Italy in the city Volterra.

Well at least that's why she's in Italy, she not exactly sure how she got to the club. All she can really remember is Jessica whining that it's their last night and they haven't had any fun and Bella is being a horrible friend—Bella rolled her eyes—but Jessica knew exactly how she could redeem herself.

So maybe Bella did know how she got there after all. That didn't mean that she had to like it.

She sighed in utter suffering but slowly and as inconspicuously as possible—and she sure it _would_ have been inconspicuous if she hadn't tripped and spilled Jessica's Pepsi all over the place. Including the woman that was snarling at her at the same time as looking mournfully at her yellow blouse—and practically ran to the exit.

Cool air brushed against her flushed face and she basked in the feel of it until she was sure that several people were looking at her with wider eyes than normal and frequently hissing, _"American," _under their breath. Yes, it was definitely time to move on.

The air seemed to croon in a silent song around her and with it came a soft sound that she couldn't quite distinguish off to her right. Curiosity peeked, but not nearly enough for her to go look. She wanted to get to the hotel, and then she wanted to go home.

Although she loved being in Italy—she had longed to go there for a long time— she found herself missing her small home in Forks and missing her father and his easy silence and always ready smile. They had only been on the trip for a week and she was hopelessly homesick.

She smiled grimly. She was probably never going to get out of that town.

The cool breeze had a new bite at the thought and she wrapped her thin sweater that was more for show than for actual warmth tighter around her and walked uneasily through the streets of the foreign city.

There was a sound again. Louder than the first one she had heard and her curiosity rose until her fingers were twitching.

She could just take a peek…

No, she thought to herself. She didn't know the streets well enough to go peek at anything. She only knew the way from the hotel to the club and to the theatre that was just down the road. She didn't know any of the side streets and alleys that someone who had lived there all their lives would.

She sighed and made her feet walk steadily towards the hotel.

But then she heard the noise again.

It was an odd sound, a soft mixture of laughter and the muffled sound of something falling and perhaps…crying? Bella was almost certain that it wasn't something bad, but there was a stirring of fear that someone was being hurt and she wasn't helping them.

Her feet changed direction without a decision being made and she sighed thankfully at no longer having to make the choice. If it was something bad, she would do whatever she could to help and if it wasn't…well then it wasn't and she'd go back to the stuffy hotel and stuffy room and wait for Jessica to come back and croon about what a wonderful time she had and how Bella was being a stupid friend and why couldn't she just have fun like a normal person!

She wasn't bitter…no…

Bella sighed. She was going crazy.

She took a side road that veered off from the one she was on. She was rewarded with the sound getting louder. She paused after she reached a point where she could either go left or right and took a hesitant step to the left. There was no difference in sound. She was too close to where she had last stood for that, so she continued to the left until she was certain that she was going the wrong direction; backtracking, she went the other way.

There were soft exclamations of air, as if the person was attempting to scream but too tired to force the sound. Bella's blood ran cold, and distantly she wished that it was merely her imagination, that she was making the situation far more severe than it actually was. Someone couldn't be hurt, someone couldn't be _being_ hurt. That wasn't possible…

And then she saw it.

For a moment that seemed like eternity she stared at what was happening before her. It was odd, she thought. She hadn't exactly imagined it to be like this, not that she had really imagined it, but she had heard enough horror stories and watched the news enough to not quite expect this.

There were two people on the deserted street. It was dark with only one street light that was perhaps ten feet from where she stood. There were buildings that over looked them and maybe seven windows looked down in a kind of silent mourning that she couldn't quite grasp.

It wasn't exactly horrible…and that was exactly why it was even worse.

There was a boy, laid out on the forgotten street far—_so far—_from Bella's hotel and he was being cradled in mockery of a mother's embrace, in the arms of a horrifyingly beautiful woman.

Her hair was pale silver in the moonlight and her features were angular and perfect on an oval shaped face. Even though she was on an empty street and there was a fallen trash can not far from her, she appeared frozen in time, as if in a photograph worthy of a model, airbrushed and all.

But what made the picture wrong was the brownish red liquid that painted the lower half of her face, and utterly swallowed full lips.

The boy that was in her arms had his back to her chest and his neck lolled grotesquely on her shoulder. She had been licking his neck and only when Bella had turned the corner had she stopped. She looked at Bella with crimson eyes that _glowed. _

The woman licked her lips like a cat licking cream and she gave a terrible smile. "Well, well," She purred, her voice throaty and deeper than Bella expected. "Have you come to be my dessert?"

Bella's vision tunneled.

The woman laughed and pushed the boy away from her. His wide, horror filled eyes, stared at Bella with death's emptiness. Bile burned Bella's throat.

"Come now dear," The woman crooned. "Don't be frightened. I'll make it quick. I promise."

Bella's legs felt weak and she stumbled back with a scream lodged in her throat and the woman _laughed. _

"What are you?" She felt like she was underwater. Her hearing was muted and distorted and her vision swirled.

"Me?" The woman questioned, seeming honestly surprised but her smile was wicked. And then she was standing in front of her. Her frozen hand gripping Bella's wrist in an easy hold that felt like iron.

"I'm a Vampire dear."

Bella's body felt heavy and there was a curious blankness that seemed to coat her vision and swallow her thoughts. A vampire, she thought, that's interesting.

"Shauna," A new voice quipped harshly and Bella wondered if she was still breathing.

"Hm," Shauna acknowledged looking away from Bella. "What do you want? I'm busy as you can see."

"Oh, yes," He snarled. "I can see. You already had one, you don't need another."

She pouted childishly and it was sickening with the blood that still covered her face. "But Dawsten," She murmured thickly. "She saw me drinking from him; we can not leave her here."

"Shauna," he roared. "You know the rules! We are given humans to feed from! We are not allowed to pick them randomly and feed off them alone!"

Shauna laughed and released her bruising grip on Bella and without the support Bella fell on liquid legs to the unforgiving street. When they started to argue she forced her shell-shocked body to move. With limbs shaking and her breathing sharp and broken she was able to make small steps on her hand and knees that became wider and faster as adrenaline began to spike through her blood.

And then she was running.

She wasn't entirely sure when she got off of her knees but soon the street beneath her and the walls were changing, and plants were passing by but as fast as she seemed to be moving, but she knew, _knew, _she was going to slow.

She didn't hear them move, didn't hear them stop shouting, until there was something slamming into her left side and she was skidding down the street. Cutting herself on the cobblestones that just a day ago had thought were charming.

She tried to rise as soon as she stopped sliding but there was iron all around her. "Stop moving," The man hissed in her ear. Cold breath brushed against her face. "If you move, you die."

And Bella went utterly and hopelessly still. Her heart beat in a fluttering staccato.

"Dawsten," Shauna snarled, her lip curling grotesquely. "She's mine."

"Foolish, Shauna," Dawsten licked the words. "You've done this three times this month already. Do you think Aro will be pleased with you?"

Shauna stiffened.

Bella knew that she shouldn't speak but the words poured out of her mouth and she attempted to move again. "Please, let me go! Please!"

"She can't just go missing Shauna," He said easily. "People will look for her."

"So what," She snarled in return. "We've covered it up before. We'll give some useless evidence and the dogs will stop barking."

Dawsten's fingers touched Bella's temple almost gently and said, "I'm going to fix this for you." There was a perverse pleasure on his face. "But my dear Shauna that means that you will be in my debt."

She snarled at him wordlessly. "No!" The word was a horrible bark that was more a sound of hatred than an actual word.

Dawsten sighed sadly. "Aro will have to be disappointed in you once again. I do believe that the last time you did this he told you that it would not be so readily forgotten. I seem to recall that Jane was very interested."

Shauna seemed to pale even though her skin had already been a bone white.

There was something sharp in her tone. An undercurrent that whispered something unconceivable but the words were soft. "Very well."

The pressure on Bella's temple increased and she gasped sharply at the pain but nothing happened. The pressure grew fiercer and his finger dug at her skin but what he seemed to be waiting for was not happening.

"What's wrong?" Shauna questioned a few steps away from where she had been before.

Dawsten's voice was tinged with disbelief. "She's not responding. It isn't working."

"What do you mean it isn't working? It always works!"

Dawsten tried again, pushing his finger sharply against Bella's temple but after five shallow breaths that Bella could barely release he laughed in shocked disbelief. "It doesn't work. We have to tell, Aro."

"No," Shauna was standing before them, leering down from her height. And she was tall, Bella realized. Much taller than most of the people she knew. "You promised me you would fix this and taking her to Aro will fix nothing. We should just kill her."

Dawsten stood, bring Bella with him in his arms. She fought against him but he ceased her movement without batting an eyelash.

_"I'm a vampire dear." _

Bella's breath seized and came in short gasping breaths that were far too loud in the hush that covered the street. She was hyperventilating. Honestly, she was surprised she hadn't started sooner.

Dawsten spoke. "We must take her to him. I will say it was I that revealed myself and decided to give her to him to decide her fate."

Shauna hissed but agreed. "Why do this for me, Dawsten. There is nothing that I can give."

Dawsten's smile was wicked. "I believe I can think of something."

She laughed condescendingly but walked away from them and it was just a breath and then they were moving too. At some point Bella fainted—once again surprised that it hadn't happened sooner—and had only brief moments of consciousness.

They were outside for what seemed to be only a moment and then suddenly they were inside of some building that she hadn't seen them enter. It was dark, and then it light, and then there were whispers and laughter and soft muted croons that hissed along her neck and there was a beautiful darkness that would hold her for a moment—for just a _moment—_ until it let her go.

And she mourned.

"Intriguing," A muted far away voice whispered. "No reaction at all."

"None," A familiar voice whispered.

A soft touch on her hand and a drowned exclamation of surprise. "How interesting. Yes…put….she'll be….wait…there might…potential…shall wait…"

And then movement and the sickening slide of metal.

"Looky here, we have a little playmate for you." Horrible, horrible laughter. "Come on Edward. Don't look at me like that. I thought you'd want the company."

Pain shot though her body suddenly and she cried out, feeling the impact of being dropped onto stone through every cell of her body. There was a sickening slide of metal once again and then there was silence.

Bella wanted the blankness to come again. Just so that she could wake up back in her hotel room or even better back home in her small bedroom, in her small town where nothing happened and she was safe, so _safe. _

"Hey," A voice whispered.

Bella started but blackness was crowding her vision and she was sobbing and she couldn't _breathe. _And then there were arms. Warm soothing arms that wrapped around her and a broken hoarse voice whispering in her ear that she was okay, that it was going to be okay.

She clung to this sudden warmth and soothing presence and looked up before she lost herself to darkness once more and saw red rimmed green eyes that held nothing but concern.

She was distantly aware that she was sick and there was a warm hand holding her hair back from her face and a filthy bucket that wasn't making her feel any better.

She was going to pass out again. The knowledge wasn't frightening, but a balm to the horror that kept replaying in her mind.

"It's okay, you're okay." The voice whispered again and she turned to look up at him once she was certain that there was nothing left in her stomach.

"I feel like I'm dying," She attempted to say and he gave a twisted smile.

She slipped easily from consciousness but heard him say with a whisper of bitter irony, "Not today."


	3. As She Faded Away

A/N: This chapter was incredibly hard to write. I've rewritten it four times and at the moment I can barely look at it. Hope you like it.

Thank you for all of my reviews and hopefully this chapter will clear some things up.

* * *

Bella wouldn't open her eyes.

Memories sang around her and she clamped her eyes so tightly shut they stung. She could feel every cut that decorated her body in some kind of grotesque illusion of art. She could feel each long indrawn breath of bitter stale air. She could feel each stone that was a frigid mockery of a bed beneath her.

She could feel…

She turned from her position on the floor and attempted to move herself into a position that somewhat appeared to be normal but the world swayed as did her head as it moved even farther down to press against her propped up knees.

There was something wet and thick welling behind her eyes and up her throat and nothing made sense. She was lost in this new found world where she appeared to be in some kind of jail cell. Well that's what she assumed it was from her brief glance that barely registered beyond the mist that coated everything. She couldn't _think. _

Her body felt wrong. It wasn't so much that it ached. But she was wrong. Wrong in where she was, how she sat, how she was moving, how…how—

The tears burned.

And she _hated _them.

The night rushed against her, a purred horror in her ear. The earth shook with each sob that seized her body but there was something there; something gripping her as tightly as she held it. It was the boy.

She moved as soon as the realization came. The arms let her go easily as if it had been hurting them to hold on.

There was a voice speaking. Hoarse and lost and sad in the silence that rang around them and Bella couldn't hear. She shook her head and attempted to focus on that haunting tune.

"Are you okay?" The boy from the night before questioned; his body leaning oddly to look at her. In a kind of hunched sprawled curious fashion.

Her answer was more an exclamation of air than actual words and slowly she leaned back to have her back resting against the stone wall that was farthest from the small iron door possibly five feet from her. The room was small. Very, very small.

The boy moved and his back cracked in a series of five pops. He pulled his legs to rest against his chest and his left hand hung leisurely from the top of his knees. His smile was a halfhearted grimace that said, _'I know.' _

"Where are we?" She croaked out and the words clanked awkwardly up the spiraling walls that she couldn't see the end of.

The boy paused and the dark hollow circles under his eyes were sharp and shadowed in the dim light that came from a candle on the opposite side of the iron door.

His voice was just as gruff as if had been before. By the way he sounded Bella thought that he would be older than his younger features hinted. "A holding cell."

"What do you mean?"

His face was lost as he moved back into the flickering shadows and there was a sigh. "We're beneath some building. I'm not exactly sure which one." He moved forward, bringing his knees down and the light brought him into full view. "I didn't really have time to notice when I was being brought in." His lips curled oddly.

He continued, "I'm not exactly sure why you're here but it's not really hard to guess. Either you saw something or heard something." He cleared his throat but there was a dry rattle in his chest.

"What are they?" Her voice was lost in the silence that surrounded them. His head tilted ever so slightly and there were questions screaming beneath tightly clamped lips.

"Vampires."

Bella had remembered that. She had remembered the soft delicate croon that the beautiful woman had whispered. She had pretended…pretended so_ hard_ that it wasn't true, that it was some kind of twisted illusion that she couldn't understand. But this wasn't an illusion…this was something else entirely.

"I'm Bella," She said so suddenly she startled both herself and the boy.

He gave a crooked grin and reached out a hand, but his eyes were troubled. Green, she thought distractedly.

"Edward," He continued. "Sorry I didn't introduce myself sooner." This disturbed him for some reason.

Bella shook her head. "I'm pretty sure you can be forgiven this time. These aren't exactly normal circumstances."

That wasn't the best thing to say.

His features darkened but his smile remained in place and it twisted something deep within her.

She looked away.

"How long…" She tried to say but didn't finish.

"How long have I been here?" He guessed.

She nodded and the action made her vision swirl.

His hand brushed distractedly through his hair in a jerking motion that Bella would associate with a drug addict that needed his next fix. His hands shook. His fingers tightened in coppery locks to still the twitch.

Bella pretended to not notice.

"What's the date?" His voice grew deeper, a mere whisper of nothing.

She tried to remember but the days and the months swirled tauntingly around her. She tried to grasp anything that she could reach but she couldn't think. Couldn't…_couldn't_…

"I don't know."

He made a soft sound of acknowledgment and what Bella perceived to be forgiveness but there was something wrong in the sound. An expectation and hope had burned there that she had let down and it made her chest hurt and her eyes burn.

She couldn't remember the date. It shouldn't be that hard. She knew just the other day. But there were so many things that had happened…so many, many _things_.

Bella's fingers dug into the soft flesh of her face.

"It's okay," He whispered.

"No," She returned. "It's not." The acidic taste of the words made her retch.

He made a sound in his throat again but said nothing against her. But that made it all the more horrible.

The iron door opened without a sound and Bella started and her heart spiked. A girl perhaps Bella's age walked into the room and placed two trays of food with a small glass of water. Bella's stomach heaved.

"Hey, Edward," The girl said easily, placing the tray directly in front of him. She gave him a small smile.

His was a mere twist of his lips. "Hey."

"You're voice is still bad," She said, her eyes narrowing in concern. "They were pretty rough on you."

One by one his fingers extended until his hand was splayed out on his knee. "I guess you could say that."

The girl didn't say anything else but placed the second tray not far from Edward's. She gave Bella a sweeping glance and there was nothing but pity there. It made Bella's blood freeze.

Edward looked disinterestedly at the single piece of bread, the small cup of fruit, and the glass of water but he picked at his bread nonetheless.

Bella was surprised.

She wasn't exactly sure what she was expecting but that certainly wasn't it. Perhaps she expected them to starve them and make them dehydrate within days. But then again, Edward had obviously been there for a while considering his thin appearance and worn filthy blue shirt and his torn jeans and he most definitely hadn't starved or dehydrated.

Although, he was too thin.

"You should eat," He said, not moving his eyes from the tray in front of him. Long elegant fingers tore the bread into fragmented pieces.

"So should you."

His lips curved and the left side tilted just a bit more than the right.

She brought her knees to her chest and wound her arms as tightly as she could. The air nipped at her exposed skin and she wished—as she had before—her thin sweater was more than just for show.

She placed her forehead on her knees and bit her lip so tightly a coppery taint filled her mouth. She tried not to remember where that smell had been so strong the night before but the scream that was building—_crying—_up her throat informed her that she wasn't doing the best job.

Something was breaking.

Her chest _ached. _

She breathed deeply through her nose and tried to remember the words of a song Jessica had made her hear just a few nights ago. She had thought the song and been annoying but now she wanted nothing more than to hear it again. It was one of those bubble gum songs that while you're listening to it you're thinking, 'seriously? Someone actually wrote this?' but you can't help but like it.

Edward wasn't ripping apart his bread anymore. He was staring blankly at the food tray and his eyes were unfocused. There was a long cut that traveled from his temple to the shadows under his eye.

He turned to her but didn't see her.

Bella wondered when she would be the same.

He hummed softly and she wondered when he started. Had he been humming when she was crying? Had he been humming when she had been trying hard not to scream?

But then again, she thought, it doesn't really matter when he started or why he is. It's just humming…he's just humming.

There's something happening. She knows that it is and she needs to distract herself and move away from thoughts and emotions. She needs to stop reaching for fragmented pieces that just keep cutting her each time she grazes them.

She sipped the water not having realized she picked up the glass. Edward's gaze sharpened for a moment and long legs extended in front of him. He leaned his back against the wall and his head tilted to the side to regard her.

As soon as she started drinking she couldn't stop.

Her throat had been hurting but she had bitterly pushed the pain away… once that moderately cool water trickled down she couldn't stop drinking.

Edward pushed his water into her empty left hand and whispered, "Drink, you need it."

She accepted his offer gratefully. Once there was nothing left she placed both glasses next to each other on her tray but Edward put his back on his own.

"Don't want them to think I don't want it." He gave her a smile that she supposed was meant to be reassuring. His hand shook the glass.

She was still thirsty and she realized that she would most likely always be thirsty. This was her new life. She wouldn't be able to get out. She didn't know what they would do with her. Would they hurt her? Or would they leave her to sit here for days…and days…and days?

Her fingers gripped her shirt but she disguised the action by smoothing the wrinkles out.

They wouldn't come out.

There was a horrible pressure in her face but she pretended that she didn't know what that meant. Edward said nothing of her tears just like she knew he wouldn't.

They had said something about her last night. She was certain that there was something important in the few words that she had grasped but they were lost to her now. Oh, she knew that they wouldn't get her out of there but she was positive that they would have either calmed her or made the panic in her blood thicken to the point where her heart would silence.

Her hands were as pale as the vampire that had killed that boy. She snarled wordlessly to herself as soon as the thought came. She had been dancing around the images all day. She didn't need offhanded comparisons to taunt them into focus.

Words were clawing up her throat.

She swallowed.

"Why are you here?" She leaned her head back on the wall and the stone dug into her scalp. She wished she hadn't spoken.

His voice was hushed and forgotten. "I met some interesting people." He gave a smile and she hardly noticed that the corner of his lips were too tight and the sensual curve to taut.

She understood that he didn't want to talk anymore. It was his story and not her business.

She nodded to him and closed her eyes in an attempt at sleep but soon realized that it would be better to stare at the grey stone than to have the darkness of her eyelids. She was not safe there.

She remembered a long time ago when Renee had said that if you stared at a point at the wall, or on the floor, or even her stuffed giraffe that she had lost when they had sold their house, that eventually you'll forget the nightmare. Forget the images that had woken you up and left you restless and wide awake. She said that soon you would be waking up in the morning, not having realized you fell asleep.

It was one of Bella's strongest memories.

Renee had been wearing a yellow nightgown that had been soft on Bella's cheek when she had held her close. Her perfume had been familiar and warm and Bella had breathed deeply to try and get more of the scent.

Renee had meticulously brushed Bella's long brown hair and had told her that nightmares weren't real and told her how to forget them and Bella had nodded as seriously as any seven year old could and told her that she would be okay and the nightmares wouldn't bother her anymore.

But Renee wasn't there to carefully brush her hair and hold her close and tell her once again how to fight off the nightmare and she wouldn't be able to put on a brave face and say that she was fine and they didn't bother her.

They might not have then…but the nightmares bothered her now.


	4. One Day You'll End Up Like Me

A/N: I'm so so so so so so sorry! It's been an insane amount of time since I've updated and once again, I'm so very sorry.

Well, here it is and still not quite what I wanted it to be. This chapter has taken me forever to write but I figured if I kept trying to fix it I would never post it.

This chapter is mostly an establishing one. I needed the foundation for the plot and for Bella and Edward's relationship so now I can get into the more exciting things.

I'm going to try and update more frequently (even though just updating is doing more than I have been,) but I can't make any promises. I've been incredibly busy the last few months and I've actually been writing my own story so I'll be focusing on that.

Once again, sorry that it's taken me this long but you won't have to wait so long again.

Please tell me what you think!

Oh, and don't worry about me abandoning it. I really want to finish it and now that school's finally out I should be able to.

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_

_He didn't quite know what to do. _

_He was awkward in his too tight shirt and too big pants and he didn't know quite how to walk even though it wasn't something that he had learned just the other day. His fingers were twitching and he longingly thought of going home and just screaming with his fingers against his piano. _

_He could almost hear it, angry and terrible and so completely miserable. _

_He walked carefully through the entrance of his new school and pretended that he didn't really care that everyone was staring and he didn't really mind that he was thinking about how in the exact moment, he hated them all. _

_He rolled his eyes at his pathetic thoughts and wasn't paying attention until he bumped into someone. _

_The apology was already on his lips but it decided instead to go back the wrong way and make him choke. _

_There was laughter around him but it was the bell like laughter that had his wide eyes staring at the small girl in front of him. _

_The girl looked up with swirling gold eyes that were placed in a delicate perfect face. She picked up her textbook that she had dropped during the collision and did a little hop skip backwards and beamed up at him._

_"Hi Edward," She said, and it would only be until later that he would wonder how it was that she knew his name, but at the time it wasn't something he questioned. _

_He gave a small uncertain smile and was able to say, "Hi," In return. _

_She gripped his arm that had been resting at his side and gave a theatrical hand shake but her eyes were knowing as they looked up into his. It was then, with all the seriousness in the world, she said, "I'm Alice, and you're my new best friend." _

* * *

"June twenty-fifth," Bella whispered to the ghosts and Edward's forgotten form in the corner of the room covered in shadows.

His head tilted in her direction but he didn't move his eyes from the crack in the stone that was resting just above his right hand.

"The date," She elaborated. Thinking that maybe he didn't remember that he had asked her the night before. Two days, she thought to herself. She had been there for two days. Edward had forgotten how long he had been there. Would she, in time, forget too? Would the days blend and the nights fade into one long scream of never ending darkness?

Although, the days were not light either. Had she confused the days and the nights? Was it really the day, or was it the night?

Bella shook her head sharply. The walls seemed to move closer.

Was insanity already there? Was it already creeping towards her? Would she know?

Edward made a soft sound. His form straightened but he had never seemed so small. His narrow sharp face was twisted into something that she couldn't fathom.

"What year?"

The world fell still.

Her voice chocked. "2009."

Something relaxed in his face.

"Seven months," He gave a tight laugh that echoed through the walls. "I thought it was longer than that. Much," The word didn't seem enough. "_Much, _longer._" _

And Bella understood.

Seven months seemed like an eternity. Just as two days had seemed like forever. Bella understood why Edward's hands shook. Although, she was certain that she would know even better in a few months. That is, if she was still alive.

She couldn't handle another day of silence. She didn't care if the conversation was forced. She didn't care if they both spoke at the same time. The screams wouldn't stop keening through the air and no longer did she try to tell if there were people or if they were in her mind.

Edward had only smiled when she asked.

She hadn't asked again.

"Where are you from?"

He moved just slightly. "Chicago," He told her indulgently. "You?"

"Originally from phoenix but now I live in Forks," She didn't need to say that 'now' wasn't exactly _now. _Edward understood.

His eyes peeked at her. "Forks? Never heard of it."

Bella gave a grimace she thought was a smile. "Not many have. It's a small town in Washington. There's nothing but green trees, moss, and rain."

Edward smiled at her. "You like it there." It wasn't a question but Bella answered nonetheless.

"Yeah," She nodded. "I didn't like it there at first. Actually," She paused, considering. "I absolutely hated it. Still do sometimes. It was hard the first year I was there but I adjusted eventually and came to kind of like it." She shrugged helplessly.

"Do you have a lot of friends?" His voice was better today. A smoother drawl that she could tell would be a pure rumble in time.

Yesterday when she had asked him if he was sick he had given her an odd smile and said, "No, I'm not sick, just hoarse in the morning. It'll go away eventually."

Bella didn't bother mentioning that it had yet to go away.

She shrugged. "I have a few. We're not really close though. We mainly just hangout at school and sometimes call each other." She shrugged again as if to prove some point.

Edward leaned back against the wall. His shirt made a soft rustle of sound. "I had one good friend," he confided quietly. "My family and I moved to another part of the city and I needed to change schools," He paused and there was something suddenly dark in his face but the next second all Bella could see was a faint smile. "I haven't talked to him for two years now."

"I'm sorry," She whispered, feeling the oppressive mood and tried not to allow the silence fall once more. "Do you miss him?" What a stupid question.

He didn't say anything but after a few beats nodded.

"Did you have other friends?"

Edward's head bowed but glimmering green eyes looked up at her through bronze bangs and Bella's breath was stolen. "I met some people. We got along okay." He suddenly laughed and the sound was so distorted Bella's ears _rang_. "One of them absolutely _hated _me and didn't mind showing me as well as telling me as often as possible." His hand tightened on the stone next to his ripped sneakers that were no longer much of a shoe. "But the others were nice."

His voice became an odd assortment of what was and never will be. "The others were nice," He said again. His laughter fell wrong and shattered and his smile became an untouchable thing that wasn't recognizable.

Bella wondered how long it would take to pick up the pieces.

He looked up at her and his eyes glimmered. He moved back to rest easily on the wall once more. Bella hadn't noticed him hunch forward.

There was a message concealed in there and Bella wondered what it could possibly be and wondered why Edward couldn't just tell her.

Perhaps telling made it real.

_Yes, _she thought, watching the tremors that had been easing into soft shivers rake through his body once more. Something horrible had happened and curiosity did not wish to be quenched.

Edward searched for something to say. She could see it in the way his head bowed ever so slightly and his eyelids flickered in thought. He chewed on his chapped bottom lip and his fingers played a tune on his jeans.

Piano fingers, her mind whispered.

She waited for the words to travel up his throat but he turned away from her and his lips remained shut. There was a freefalling sensation but she pretended it wasn't there. His small dismissal wasn't actually a dismissal at all but…

She grazed her fingers along the stone next to her shoes. She leaned against her propped up legs and pressed her chin on her knees. Her nails made a soft hiss in the darkness of their cell and she scratched harder until the noise seemed to shout.

Edward turned back to her and her fingers stopped hurting.

"It's hard to be here," he told her easily as if speaking of something else. But he did not speak again. It seemed to be enough to him. Like he had given the comfort that he had intended and decided she didn't need anymore.

Bella needed more.

Her hands brushed against her jeans and she moved her head until her cheek was cradled between her knees. She brushed fallen hair out of her eyes.

He licked his lips and then licked them again. His chest rose in a deep sigh and said, "I'm sorry."

She attempted to say that there was nothing to be sorry for but all she could do was close her eyes and pretend that he hadn't spoken at all.

Because telling made it real and Bella couldn't make it real.

She had been trying, trying so very, very hard to brush away the rush of hysteria that kept creeping back to torment her. She had been trying so hard to ignore the way her body was shivering and the way that her jaw clenched and the way she couldn't look up from the ground for more than a few seconds, only seeing Edward in brief frozen images that she would later interpret.

Bella worried.

If she was already like this and she had been there for only a few days what we she be like when she had been there as long as Edward had? How had he survived this long? How had he remained able to speak to her and act as if nothing was wrong? How had he…?

But then again, Bella's mind whispered, he hadn't really survived.

Her eyelashes flickered as she closed her eyes tiredly and pretended that she couldn't hear each hollow rattle the echoed in Edward's chest each time he breathed and pretended that she didn't see his hands curl into fists and then release again.

How horrible it must have been to be alone this entire time.

Bella's head rose fractionally. "Edward," Her voice said. "Were there others with you? Before me I mean."

Edward made a low sound in his throat as if hurt and said. "There were others."

Bella's muscles seized. There were other people in this place. Other people locked up and sitting right were she was sitting, but there was no comfort in that thought. Those people weren't there now and Bella doubted they just got to walk away.

Edward's neck titled and his eyes turned to the black never ending ceiling. "They forget about us for long periods of time," he said offhandedly. "Time is not the same to them. They don't age at all. A thirteen year old will forever look like a thirteen year old." He nodded to himself. "Because they don't age they don't have to worry about things they need to do because really, they have all the time in the world." Here he paused and looked down at his shirt. "They forget that _we_ don't have all the time in the world."

He seemed to not be able to say more. His murky green eyes filmed over even more and his head lolled to the side.

Bella understood that now would not be the time to press him about what happened. But thoughts and images plagued her without his answer.

Edward obliged. "Her name was, Gemma." He gave a sad little smile that was a mere twist of his lips. "She was visiting with her church. They were building someone a home just outside the city." His smile sharpened. "She wasn't religious at all and would tell anybody that listened that it was her aunt that made her go because she believed that she needed to be 'saved'. She was the standard Goth," He made a motion with his hand, "You know, the black clothing, chains, black hair, black nails."

His hair fell into his eyes and as his hand moved to brush it back his fingers traced the scar that she had seen earlier.

"She didn't cope well," He whispered, his words heavy with some unseen burden. "She always thought that _they,_" his voice was a hitching purr. "Were attacking her and that they were always there…always watching." He swallowed. "I tried to stop her once because she kept scratching herself but I just ended up having her scratching me instead. She wouldn't stop screaming." His voice hushed until Bella could hear the horror in the chord.

He continued. Bella whished he hadn't. "The sound annoyed them and when, Jillian, came to leave the food." Bella remembered the girl that had come in just the day before to give them food and placed the name with her face. "Gemma ran out and they decided that she no longer was worth it."

He made a soft sound. "There were others of course. Just a few, but I think you understand."

Bella didn't even try to push away the rush of hysteria.

Edward said, "I'm sorry," like he had failed her. "I shouldn't have told you." He liked dry lips and coughed. "But you have to…you have to understand."

Bella bit her jeans and imagined that she was home. Imagined that she was alone and that the walls weren't screaming and Edward wasn't repeating, "I'm sorry," over and over again.

Bella pretended.

She thought that maybe in time she might believe it.

It was that thought that was more frightening than anything else.

* * *

Dawsten moved silkily through the halls and gave the slightest of smiles when he saw Shauna turn down another hall when she saw him. He wanted to purr. His chest rumbled with a soft laugh instead.

His leather coat brushed against the floor and he moved a long fingered hand through long gold hair.

"Dellia," He hummed to the shadows and the walls. "Dellia," he whispered again.

There was a brief noise to his left and his smile sharpened. Red eyes watched him.

"Dawsten," Dellia acknowledged, her tongue tasting the words awkwardly.

He bowed his head ever so slightly.

"Do you speak the truth," She questioned, turning to stare at the ceiling.

He licked his lips as an emotion swept through him. He would later call it triumph. "I do."

She nodded as if she had expected his answer. She rose from her sitting position and walked distortedly on blue high heals.

She stopped before she turned. "If you do what you say," Her hollow cheeks were black in the light . "Then you have my word."

Dawsten did not bother to hide his smile.


	5. If I Stay, It Won't Be Long

_She stepped into his house as if she had been there many times before. "Do you still want to have a sandwich?" She asked him as she twirled her way around the kitchen and opened different cabinets to find what she needed. _

_His head was heavy with thoughts of sleep and his throat was dry with things he wished to say. He rested his forehead on the table that he colored on when he was a child. On the chair he sat on, a little purple stick figure struck some odd awkward pose with his cape frozen in a semblance of a breeze. _

_"Alice," He said, his words a garbled mess against the table. "What are you doing here? I stayed home sick today." _

_She looked at him like he was missing something. "I know that," She chided, placing the perfectly made sandwich in front of his gripping hands. "That's why I'm here." _

_She made a startling move backwards and he felt that apathetic feeling of something incredibly wrong. His skin crawled in a sudden unease and he huffed a breath that was a whisper of a word. _

_There was a moment of indecision on her face before it cleared and she backed up towards the single window above the sink where a soft ray of light would make her skin sparkle. _

_That look of utter indecision was so profound, that even as things began to blur and his body began to break, when he was caught in something beyond hell, he would remember it. _

_And hate her for it. _

* * *

His fingers were long and calloused, almost feminine with the way they curved in that off set position that beckoned.

The skin was dry and cracked and the hairline fractures were filled with red and black. Past memories that had her tongue push against the back of her teeth, as if trying to keep the words from escaping. She twisted her lips and tilted her head down so all she could see were their hands resting beside each other.

With a soft hesitance that wasn't really a question, she brushed one of her own fingers against one of his and suddenly felt her vulnerability like an invisible piece of glass that isn't seen until it's too late. The softness of her skin, the almost disgusting delicateness, was so very paramount when she looked at his.

Her eyes flinched up to his own when his hand made an almost startled movement, appearing to just notice that she was there. Green eyes that were sunken on his face made a sweeping look to take her in and his lips quirked in his splintered little smile.

Her shoulders caved ever so slightly and she attempted to return what he gave her, but by the way his eyes seemed to fade even more on his disappearing face while he leaned back even farther so that the shadows became his skin, told her in an easy cadence that she failed.

Her face twisted.

She tried to say his name, as if that would make up for it. She felt the loss of reality so acutely the past few days. She knew it had to have been a large amount of time. There was no way that it couldn't have been. Not with the way she was feeling, not with the way she was breaking.

And that was what was happening. She was breaking. The words pounded in her head and she tried to say his name again. It was there, lost in the sudden blaring of _noise _that was so much it had no distinct sound.

"Bella," He said, his head tilting ever so slightly, his features becoming discernable once more. The sudden silence was a whispering boom in her chest.

"Edward," She sighed, her body caving forward so that when her cheek touched the cool stone floor she was a touch away from his hand. The sad long fingered hand that wouldn't move.

She cleared her throat. "How long," She paused as if to give the words some alternative meaning. "How long do you think it's been?" She wished she could swallow them just as soon as she said them.

His laughter was a muted thing. "I don't know, Bella." He twisted his body so his back curved and his chest faced the other direction but his face was tilted towards her.

Bella moved closer to his hand and then carefully, entwined her own with his.

His eyes shuttered and his hand made an odd convulsing movement. Almost comfortingly he began to slide his away, as if he was afraid that if he pulled away too quickly and too soon that she would be offended by it. _'I won't be,' _she almost said, wondering if that would have made up for what she would do next.

She tightened her grip until it was no longer a pretend situation where he would make up a series of circumstances that involved her accidentally holding his hand. It was now obvious and no longer avoidable.

He moved closer to her for a moment. His body still awkwardly held but slowly shifting until half breathed words touched her temple. He used more force the next time when he pulled away and she thought briefly of still not allowing it. His fingers were a lost sensation against her palm as they moved.

Bella felt the heat of something akin to shame. "I'm sorry," She said, the words too loud.

Edward's glazed eyes focused on her and then cleared ever so slightly. "No," He said. "I'm sorry." But he didn't do anything else and he most definitely didn't return his hand so that she could hold something while her world crumbled. What he did do though was sit close to her and hum like he had done the second day, or what she perceived to be the second day, she had been there.

Time had dragged on and had become a limitless fear that she had no way to control. She could guess at how time had passed by how filthy she had become and how many times she had, had to push away her pride and pretend that was happening wasn't, when she was forced to go the bathroom. The mortifying experience had included another filthy bucket not unlike the one that had been her friend the first few nights she had been there when she had seen nothing but a dark red liquid and an even more hideous smile.

She had stood on shaking legs and had whispered her question of what to do to Edward with an almost angry exclamation. His lips had parted and his head lolled down to his right shoulder. His smile was an attempt at comforting as he called out in a voice that didn't know how to scream to the girl that had brought them food. Who had often times forgot to bring food.

The girl, Jillian, who she had realized was never very far away, had pulled Bella out of the room and down a hallway that she couldn't really see. Jillian had given a twitching nervous smile and said, "Well, there's no such thing as privacy." What had followed was an imitation of being alone with Jillian turning her back and having to use a bucket that sat in the corner. "They didn't think to have any plumbing down here," was the almost apology.

When she had returned, Edward had briefly pressed his hand to her shoulder but moved away as everything became too much. His eyes had been too knowing and she had curled herself away from him. The irrational anger that somehow everything was his fault had made her cold.

Bella sighed and raised her eyes to the ceiling that she couldn't see. She wondered how high it was. The darkness that was everywhere was a thicker tangible thing that was like the sun in a way. The way that made it so you thought that if you kept running to it, eventually you could touch it and in the way that made you hurt to look.

Everything was quiet, as it always was with the exception of the Edward's shallow breath that was always just a little quicker and harsher that it should have been. It was almost like he couldn't get enough oxygen. The thought was frightening. Far more frightening than the walls that seemed to move and whisper things when she was in that lull between sleep and consciousness.

"Talk to me?" Bella asked. The, 'please,' and unspoken thing between them.

He nodded but still didn't say anything. The soft heat of his arm resting close to hers felt like a sentence.

And then he spoke, "Her name was Alice," He paused then, seeming to wait for her comment that wasn't coming. "She was my best friend." He smiled at her then, and it was so devastating she turned away.

He licked his lips. He wavered in the air before he hunched slightly towards her and the heat from his arm, closer now, was something between them.

"She wasn't like my other friend." He tilted his head. "The one I had before I moved. She was different, but I liked that about her. She was always happy and excited and she was so small, but I knew she was strong." He stopped then, as if the final sentence had burned his throat.

Edward's green eyes faded in that moment. As if at the same time she took a breath and her side went passed that barrier of heat and touched his arm with her inhale, a thousand hands had rubbed them raw.

Bella didn't quite know what to do. She didn't know what had caused his sudden intense and yet strangely subdued reaction. Saying his name seemed like too much to give and the other words had too many edges.

She let them cut. "Tell me about her."

He turned away.

And then he started. The words were off, but there. Fractured but too simple to truly be broken and he said little things that said nothing. Just to speak, just so she could listen.

He told her that her hair was short and dark. She liked to shop. She loved fast cars. She secretly longed to steal one and then finally, the one that made him stop speaking, her eyes were gold.

"I liked them," He told her, swallowing audibly. "They almost seemed to have different layers if you looked at them just right." And then he was fierce, his whisper a shout, "When she was angry and as the weeks went by, they would get darker." His chest expanded and the sentence was there, but he didn't speak it. She wouldn't know until later when everything made bitter sense that what he was about to say was, "_They would be black." _

Not that she would know, just then, what that would mean and more achingly, what it meant.

"Do you love her?" She asked. She moved away from him.

His smile was a tilted thing. "Not in the way you're thinking." And that was that.

She thought of asking more but he had twisted his body so that he was somehow still sitting and yet lying down at the same time. It was another one of those awkward positions that he continued to put himself in. It was almost like he didn't know how to become comfortable. Like trying to be comfortable was something beyond him.

Her own body, angled away from him, curled so that her right side was exposed and the rest of her was pressed against the wall where it dug into her skin. If it had been weeks ago, she might have moved.

Her eyes fluttered and she liked to think that she slept for a while but there was no indication of any time passing. Edward was in the same position and the wall was still the only thing looking back at her.

She felt excessively warm which was an almost pleasant surprise to the normal feeling of always being so cold, but she was aware enough to realize what this meant.

She wondered if it would be enough to kill her.

She pressed her burning face against the stone wall and felt it scrape against her skin. It burned but she pressed in farther until Edward gripped her shoulders with his half there faltering hands and pulled her away. He looked at her with murky eyes that didn't see anything at all and then turned away, just like he always did.

And she hated him so very acutely in that moment.

A sudden noise startled her and she made a high pitched sound in the back of her throat that caused Edward to jerk his hand so that it hit a grove in the wall where the stone jutted out in a little sliver.

Edward hissed and pulled his hand back to him. She didn't need to see the dark liquid that suddenly had her remembering that same liquid on the lips of a creature that had her head swimming. The soft silver sweet scent had her losing the feeling in her legs and the blood drain from her face. She had become a dead weight and the stone arched into her back to the point where the pain registered and her eyes watered.

She gasped in evasive air and Edward was pulling his hand close to his chest with his vague eyes suddenly inexplicably wide. He blinked lethargically and his head slumped forward and he pulled his hand even closer to himself and then a soft sound echoed in the back of his throat. It made her own throat close.

The footsteps were almost nonexistent and she was suddenly startlingly sure that the only reason that she heard them at all was because they wanted her to. She felt boneless and lethargic and her mouth watered with nausea, but the bread she had eaten two days ago wasn't there for her to throw up. She was almost relieved.

And then they were there.

They were almost hideous in the way the light made shadows on their cheeks and their eyes had become bruised shapes that couldn't seem to decide where to sit. They were almost grotesque in the perfect way they smiled and their shoulders curved and their hands curled.

They almost were and would have been, had the thin layer of skin not hide as much as it did.

Two of them stood tall and their bodies swayed with every odd little step and they seemed too small for their size, as if the strength was unnatural and new. Their dark red eyes that were almost black but not, and they flickered like an animals would in every direction but Bella noticed something that had her eyes burning and her stomach seizing.

Their wild animalistic eyes always returned to Edward's carefully protected hand.

The hand that wasn't really protected at all.

The third person in the odd disfigured group was a girl. Her head was tiled to the right in a curious childlike wonder but her smile was a sharp thing.

It was the little girl that had her pressing even further into the wall and her fingers flinching to somehow reach Edward but not quite be able to. She felt her face twisting and her body seizing. Her toes curled and the filth on her arms _burned. _

The girl — the _wrong _one — spoke, and Bella's breath was a wail unspoken in her chest.

"Edward," She said with an odd kind of intimacy unnatural in a child's tone and gave him a smile that was edges and broken pieces. "It's been a while."

His eyes were focused on the ground. He wouldn't look up, or he couldn't. His head slumped forward to almost touch his bent knees that cradled his hand and chest and she saw in flickering images what this meant.

She looked away to focus on something other than the disfigured child that she thought might have been beautiful had she not seen what rippled beneath her skin and turned away from what her future would be.

Her fingers dug at the floor until she thought they might bleed and then she was picking at her skin because her hands were ruined things at her sides that weren't doing _anything _and she could see the world ending.

The sigh that came from behind the door had her flinching her eyes up to look. Edward's legs were straight in front of him, lying unnaturally on the floor. His left hand was at his side while his right was raised before his face as he looked at the blood that was so dark it looked fake.

His pupils were blown wide and there was only a faint layer of green. His eyelashes fluttered and then he was looking at the creatures that stared fixatedly at the blood.

He wiped his hand on his filthy jeans and the red smeared in and became almost nonexistent except for the fact that it wasn't and everyone was looking while Edward wasn't and that meant so much more than anything he could have tried to say.

Her thoughts rambled and mixed and she saw too much and everything was _spinning. _

The two at the girl's side twitched and their lips curled and Bella's own lips parted in some kind of twisted imitation.

She didn't know what to _do. _

They weren't supposed to be there. They weren't because she had almost convinced herself that what she had seen and what Edward had said wasn't true. Her mind had twisted and pulled and there had been another reason for being there that eluded her when she tried to grasp it, but that was okay because she knew it was there, she just couldn't remember it.

Bella didn't mind not remembering…everything was okay that way.

She felt a sickness in her skin that was far too warm but there was a sudden flare of understanding. She knew as she looked at them and then at Edward, that it wouldn't be what would kill her. She felt something akin to grief.

The girl was speaking again. "Edward," She sighed. "We were supposed to meet today." There was a beautiful kind of cruelty in the way her lips moved and a bright tooth flashed. "But it seems that our plans will have to change, seeing to the fact that you would be killed before I even get you to the hall."

Bella thought the girl might have laughed but the rush of _too much, _drowned out anything that was said.

The girl's eyes flickered and then she was looking at Bella and Bella was trying to look back because she didn't want to be Edward who couldn't look but whispered words of death when he showed his hand.

The girl smiled and said, "Our plans will just have to change."

It felt like the rattle after a door slams as Edward pulled his hand back to his chest.

* * *

A/N: Well I meant to be a lot better about this whole updating thing but at least it's here. I actually wrote three different versions of this chapter and finally settled on this one, so I hope everyone's happy with it.

Also, from now on I'll be updating my profile page to say how far along I am with the next chapter so everyone's not in the dark when the update will come, and it will give a warning if I'm struggling. As I seem to be doing quite a bit.

Oh and I want to give a huge thank you to inkybot5 who gave me the most amazing review. It really helped me try and not get too frustrated with my writing. Thank you so much!

Hope everyone likes the chapter and please tell me what you think!


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